In this episode Cree shares her experience of feeding her two sons Te Ariki and Ruairidh (Rory). 

Cree had her first son at 19 years old, back in 2011 (2 days before the Christchurch Earthquakes) and talks about the beautiful breastfeeding experience she had with him.   This period wasn’t without challenge, as Te Ariki had to return to hospital on the same day as the Christchurch earthquakes to be admitted to NICU.  Cree takes us through the challenges with feeding in NICU and during aftershocks, and fitting in as a 19 year old mama.

Last year, Cree had her second son Ruairidh and breastfeeding was really difficult.  She openly admits that she went into birth feeling confident, and didn’t really question whether she would be able to breastfeed.  Cree takes us through the shock of finding that feeding Ruairidh was not as simple as she had imagined it would be.  She also talks about the difficulties she had due to not being able to walk during the postpartum period (following a medical mishap that occurred a few weeks before Ruairidh’s birth).  She also shares the support she had from her family and husband Jarren.

Cree openly talks about the fact that, as a second time mum, there was an expectation (from both her and others) that she would simply be able to breastfeed without issue.  This was made even more difficult by the fact that Cree is a midwife and has a strong breastfeeding support practice as part of that, so the expectations were high.

Cree is an amazing story teller, she is so upbeat and you can’t help but smile even as she talks about the really difficult parts of feeding and the postpartum period.

**Trigger warning: this episode mentions the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and we also briefly discuss miscarriage and fertility issues at one point in the episode.